I’m not sure Manny knew about it. In fact, I know he didn’t know about it because we were all surprised. I don’t think Manny felt anything affected him during the season. It’s just the fact that when you find out you’ve got a situation where you’ve got to have surgery for a hernia-like situation, you obviously know it’s impactful. We found out that Manny had some medical maladies that had to be surgically repaired in the offseason. It had a pretty big impact on his performance.

Boras saying “it had a pretty big impact on his performance” despite also saying that Ramirez “didn’t know about it” is basically a perfect portrayal of the public’s perception of each person.

Boras is trying to spin it so that Ramirez’s complete lack of production following a trade to the White Sox can be blamed on the injury, no doubt to help stir up some free agent interest. At the same time Ramirez, who has long had a reputation for being oblivious to just about everything but hitting a baseball, played most of the season with a groin injury that eventually required surgery and “didn’t know about it.”

For whatever it’s worth, Boras also said that Ramirez is now fully recovered from the surgery and has a “good” market that involves “multiple teams” being interested. Whether or not Ramirez is aware of any of that remains unclear.

The A’s added two veteran right-handers on Sunday, re-signing the rehabbing Brett Tomko and picking up Jason Jennings on a minor league contract.
Tomko, who went 4-1 with a 2.95 ERA in six starts for the A’s down the stretch last year, is still working his way back from an arm injury and isn’t expected to be an option for Oakland until May at the earliest.
Jennings was shifted to the bullpen by the Rangers last year and had a 4.13 ERA in 61 innings before losing his spot. He started off with a 3.26 ERA in 47 innings before the break, but he gave up 11 earned runs in 14 innings afterwards and was released.
The A’s said they planned to stretch Jennings back out and allow him to compete for a rotation spot. He’d be a long shot to make the team either way, but he probably will have a better shot of beating out Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez for a rotation spot than he would overtaking any of the power bullpen arms.

Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports that Shin-Soo Choo has hired Scott Boras to be his agent, leaving Octagon Worldwide behind. Choo, 27, batted .300/.394/.489 with 20 homers, 86 RBI and 26 stolen bases last season. Heis under team control through 2013, but he will be arbitration-eligible for the first time after this season.

Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com recently reported that the Indians feel they have the financial flexibility to lock up both Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera to long-term contracts, however an extension for Choo will almost certainly be complicated by the presence of Boras.

Of course, Kendry Morales also recently hired Boras after he fired the Hendricks brothers in what appears to be a financial dispute. Like Choo, the 26-year-old first baseman will be arbitration-eligible for the first time after this season.